HERE'S WHY REFORMER PILATES IS ONE OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE WORKOUTS RIGHT NOW

YOU’VE seen it all over your feed.

- GERRY CUPIDO

THE reformer resembles gym equipment designed by someone who was also an engineer and possibly a puzzle enthusiast. | Pexels

(Pexels)

Influencers gliding through elegant movements on what looks like a medieval torture device, somehow making it look effortless.Reformer Pilates has had its social media moment, but beneath the aesthetic lies a workout that’s far more demanding and far more useful than most people give it credit for.

If you've been curious but held back by the assumption that it’s basically just stretching in expensive activewear, it’s time to rethink that.

It’s not what you think it is

Reformer Pilates has a bit of an image problem. The name alone conjures up visions of graceful dancers and flexibility routines, which is probably why so many people dismiss it as too gentle to be worth their time.

But fitness professionals who work with it daily say that impression couldn't be more wrong.

Geraldine Anderson, head of group training at Planet Fitness, has heard every misconception in the book. The one that comes up most? That it’s easy.

“If you think it’s easy, you're probably doing it wrong,” she says. “If you're doing it right, you're pushing or pulling, resisting, returning to the starting position with precision, and staying aligned the whole time. By the end of the class, you're shaking because those deep stabiliser muscles have worked hard”

That shaking is a clue. It means your body is being asked to do something it isn’t used to, and that’s exactly the point.

What the reformer actually does